The Most Competitive Championship Yet?

So, the Championship season ended just recently with Fulham and Aston Villa playing out the playoff final at Wembley Stadium in what is known as “football’s richest game.”

Fulham was victorious on the day beating Steve Bruce’s Aston Villa 1-0 and they now join Wolves and Cardiff as the promoted sides to the Premier League ahead of the 2018/19 campaign. While it will be very interesting to see how all three sides fare in the top flight, anticipation is already growing for the next Championship season.

The Championship has fast become known as one of the most exciting football leagues in the world and next season could be the most competitive campaign for a long time. With Wolves, Cardiff and Fulham all being promoted, the Championship has now welcomed Swansea, Stoke and West Brom into the division, and you would expect all three of those sides to go well next season, regardless of departures.

The three relegated sides will also benefit from parachute payments, with some of the other teams in the division also boosted by them such as Middlesbrough and Hull City. This could see even more money spent by teams in England’s second tier as they look to follow in the footsteps of Wolves, Cardiff and Fulham by getting out of the division and making it to the money-laden Premier League.

Regardless of parachute payment though, you could actually make a case for well over half of the sides in the league being top six candidates ahead of the new season. While the newly relegated sides are likely to be favourites before a ball is kicked, there are still a lot of big teams in the Championship.

The likes of Aston Villa, Derby County, Leeds United, Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday are teams who have spent many years in the top flight of English football, while teams such as Brentford, Bristol City, Millwall and Sheffield United will be looking to build on their performances last season.

This means we are likely to be in for the most thrilling Championship season for a long time, and there’s always a team that does surprisingly well too, just as Cardiff did under Neil Warnock in the 2017/18 campaign. There’s no wonder that more and more people are tuning in to watch Championship action on a regular basis.

In terms of the promoted sides who will begin the new season in the Premier League, you’d expect Wolves to fare the best out of the three. They have a solid squad already and with the spending power and their connection to super-agent Jorge Mendes, they should have enough about them to do well. Cardiff may struggle, especially if they fail to make the right signings, while Fulham look set to lose a couple of the players that helped them win the playoffs and this could prove to be a blow for them, however, they are likely to spend a considerable amount.